What is the Marketing Mix? The Eight Ps, Four Cs, As and Os.

The marketing mix is an assortment of techniques and their combinations used to market a new brand. These techniques are often called the four Ps or more recently the eight Ps.

Four Ps / Eight Ps in the Marketing Mix

Product is used to refer to the range of products or services that your company is selling or developing including the quality, branding and reputation of the products. In case of a service, support for the client after the purchase was made is also an important aspect of the first of the four Ps - product. For instance, access to a telephone helpline in case of emergency is often sold together with travel insurance.

Price refers to the amount of money the product or service costs.

Place means the place where your product is sold, the location of your shops, or outlet, or the accessibility of your service. It is an important consideration that your product or service should be made easily accessible.

Promotion is the last of the four Ps, and it refers to the ways you tell customers about your product or service. In the promotional mix is found a blend of promotional tools - for instance, TV advertising, hanging banners, wall-mounted literature holders, tent cards etc. - used to communicate to potential customers about your product or service.

Promotion also includes free-to-enter competitions for customers, prize draws, money-off coupons, e-coupons, special offers (BOGOF: buy one get one free), gifts, seasonal and in-store promotions etc. - anything that makes the product more popular.

Talk about an additional four Ps of the marketing mix is becoming more and more wide-spread among marketing specialists.

People refers to how you differentiate your staff from that of your competitors'. Also it refers to how your clients differ from those of your competitors'.

Process is the building and delivery process of your product or service. When marketers consider process, they think about how the product or service is sold to, delivered to and accessed by the customer.

Presence is the look and feel of your shop and website.

Physical evidence refers to the tangible representations of your service. These could include tickets, brochures etc. - anything that your clients can touch and feel.

Sales promotion displays

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In-store gondola

Literature holder

Tent card

Shelf sticker

Window display

Four Cs, As and Os in the Marketing Mix

The four Cs, As and Os are simply another way of looking at the four Ps. When combining them in your marketing mix, you get a fuller picture of what you want the product or service to do and how it should be achieved.

Four Cs

Four As

Four Os

Four Ps

Customer Needs: Identifying customers' problems and how the company can solve them by developing the product.

Acceptability: The product should be socially and legally accetable as well as attractive and fashionable.

Objects: The way the product is manufactured as well as its level of quality.

Product

Cost to Customer: Determining the cost of the product that the customer will perceive as fair.

Affordability: The product should be available at a price that the customer can affort to pay.

Objectives: Considerations about the revenue the company should generate and the price at which this revenue objective should be met.

Price

Convenience: Making the product available to customers without their having to make an effort.

Accessibility: The product should be conveniently accessible even for people with disabilities.

Organization: Sale and distribution of the product; determining the destribution methods to be used.

Place

Communication: Ways the company will use to get their message about the product across to the customer.

Awareness: As many people should know about the product as possible.

Operations: Promotional operations that most suit the product, such as telemarketing, direct mail etc.

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AUTHOR

Haunty

7 years agofrom Hungary

Hi Lela :) I knew I was missing something here. AIDA, AIDAC, AIDAS... lol Marketing is not unlike anything else in business. Someone makes money thinking more and more of it up. Thank you for the addition.

Thank you, froggy. I wanted to work in marketing after graduation, but there were no job opportunities. Sleep inducing? You've got it perfectly right. I couldn't sleep so I started writing marketing hubs. Now I know what I did even made sense. lol

Andria

7 years ago

I did marketing as a part of the degree course I embarked upon a few years ago. I still remember PEST and SWOT analysis. Some of it was hard to absorb, possibly a combination of the rather dour lecturer and the subject itself.

All of it made sense though. I learned about product placement, advertising, costing and lots of other sleep inducing aspects of marketing :)

This made sense though. Presented in a way that's engaging and understandable makes quite the difference to the learner.

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